I got a call yesterday morning from an high school teacher who was in the Holocaust class with me as a student a few years ago. After exchanging pleasantries, part of our conversation went something like this:
“Doc, another reason I’m calling is that I’m in a jam. I was talking to a parent and he wanted to know why I got a job as a teacher. His tone had a sneer to it. How would you answer him so he’ll understand?”
“How would you?”
“Doc!”
“No, it’s got to be your answer, not mine.”
“Come on!”
“How many times did you hear me say that you’ve got to know your ‘why.’ I will ask you to think of this, ‘How did the Holocaust class effect you?'”
“Wearing that star the entire semester everywhere I went changed my life like no other class I had. It really did. It burned into my soul. It still does. I’ll never forget it. I’m like one with the star. It began a new chapter in my life. I look at it every day lying in my top dresser draw. My wife and I talk about it all the time.”
“Go on.”
“It shook everything up. I mean ‘everything.’ I came out of that class a completely different and better person with a whole new perspective on life and myself. It made me look at myself. It opened me up to possibilities I never dreamt of. I came out from that class feeling I could handle anything that got thrown my way…I mean I’m teaching because of that class….I wanted and still want to have the kind of impact you had and have on me….”
“And, so, your answer is?”
Then, there was a moment of silence. “To make a difference! I’ll tell him that it’s my purpose is to make a difference in people’s lives; to help each and every student not just to learn about math, but to become a better person and do good.”
“That’ll do. But, and it is a big ‘but,’, you got yourself in this jam because you forgot that the parent’s premise was wrong in the first place. Teaching…is…not…a…job. It…is…not…even…a…profession. It’s a calling. You’re on a mission. Teachers are put on earth, as you just said, to shakes things up. Teachers transform lives, change the world, alter the future. What they do is forever. Anyone in the classroom who doesn’t believe that, or dreams of doing it, or struggles to do it, should go get a job.”
And, we talked some more.
Louis